1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cowl structure for automobile, and in particular, to a cowl-top cover for automobile, which is disposed among a lower end part of a front window panel, a bonnet, and a dash panel, the cowl-top cover absorbing a shock.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in a vehicle such as an automobile, an engine room having a motor-driven engine incorporated therein is installed at a front part of a vehicle body; the engine room is structured so as to be covered at left and right side faces with a fender panel at its left and right side faces and to be covered with an openable/closable hood at its upper face opening portion; and a cowl-top cover having an air suction opening for introducing atmospheric air is provided on a cowl-top panel upward of a rear part of the engine room.
As the prior art, there exists a cowl-top cover in which a protrusion portion is formed to extend and protrude in a vehicle widthwise direction by means of: a front wall on which an air suction opening for introducing atmospheric air into a compartment is opened; and a rear wall that is provided to communicate with the front wall, and an end part opening of the protrusion portion is closed to an end plate to thereby constitute a cowl-top cover main body, the cowl-top cover for vehicle, being adapted to provide a separation state portion between the end part opening of the protrusion portion and the end plate to thereby constitute the protrusion portion in a bottom-opening deformable (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-152991). In addition, there exists a cowl structure of four-wheel vehicle, in which a longitudinal wall portion is erected at a main body portion of a cowl-top garnish that is disposed between a front hood and a front glass, a rear end back face of the front hood is received via a hood seal that is attached to the longitudinal wall portion, and a fixing portion formed at a front end of the main body portion of the cowl-top garnish is fixedly bonded with a front-end mount portion of a cowl upper panel, the cowl structure for four-wheel vehicle, the structure being adapted to offset the longitudinal wall portion of the cowl-top garnish rearward of a vehicle body relative to the fixing portion and to form an elongated hole taken along the longitudinal wall portion at the main body portion in the vicinity of the vertical wall portion (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-45996).
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-152991, which is the prior art, there is disclosure of a cowl-top cover having traceability to form a vehicle body and having an energy absorption structure, in which, in a case where a cowl-top cover main body having a protrusion portion is which provided an extension, in a vehicle widthwise direction, and is formed in a substantial inverted-V shape by means of a front wall, which is opened at an air suction opening for introducing atmospheric air into a compartment, and a rear wall which is provided to communicate with the front wall, is installed upward of a rear part of an engine room, a separation state portion exerted by a slit-shaped gap is provided at a communication portion between an opening at each end part of the protrusion portion and an end plate to thereby cause the protrusion portion to be bottom-opening deformable.
In the prior art, while there is no problem associated with shock absorption exerted by a cowl cover, a side face wall portion of the cowl cover as shock absorption is used as an independent soft material, thus resulting in an increase in parts costs. In addition, since such an independent material, more mounting works and processes have to be done. Further, there arise several problems in manufacture of cowl covers, such as a problem that parts have alignment portions, thus making it difficult to manage quality or a problem that an engagement structure is set at the time of making dies, and thus there is a need to set a slide structure in die, for example.
The cowl cover of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-45996 employs a stress concentration structure in a longitudinal direction. Thus, an energy absorption in a downward direction (vertical direction) can only be achieved. Therefore, since the rigidity in the longitudinal direction increases in the stress concentration structure, an energy absorption in a transverse direction is not achieved, and an energy absorption in a wide range has to be achieved.
However, since an external energy at the time of shock is locally input and then propagates in a radial shape, the energy can be absorbed in only one vertical direction, leading to an impaired efficiency.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cowl-top cover leading to an efficient absorption of impact energy and a cost reduction, which are the above-described problems which still remain unsolved.